His arms shielded his face from the massive fist. Blasting into the air like a lose kite, Ikky tried to reposition his body before landing in the snow. From just one blow from the spirit, his arms had already turned numb.
If he had taken such a hit before he had ascended to prophethood, his arms would have burst into splat. Now though, he could probably take one more slightly stronger hit from the spirit before that happens.
What did that mean? Ikky was grossly outmatched in this fight, and very, very much so.
Without it still moving from its spot, the spirit pulled back its gigantic arms, shrinking it back down to the size of its body.
This creepy spirit was only shaped like a human. Its body was a gross amalgamation of the carcasses of dead spirits. And from the smell of it, those bodies had been there for way longer than they were supposed to— since spirits were all meant to burst to smoke after a while.
It was three meters tall, and apart from the skulls and bones of random creatures that occasionally popped out of the spirit's rotting flesh of a body, its head was certainly that of a dead human; green and decaying.
One of the eyes of that head had popped out long ago, leaving a hollow space. While the other was still in its place, albeit so loosely, it faced the sky, making its countenance resemble that of a person who was about to pass out.
It's open mouth was filled with scattered teeth, but it didn't seem like a creature to even use its mouth to talk.
Raising one of its bony fists in the air, the spirit shot it at Ikky, making the thin pale muscles around its arm stretch along so fast, the attack was able to breach the gap between it and its new prey.
It was a good thing for Ikky that the spirit had knocked him back a great distance, giving him a better chance to react to the new attack. But as soon as Ikky leapt out of the way, a weird shock suddenly passed through his entire body, making him lose control of his muscles.
'Gh?! What? No no no! Not now!!'
A wave of frustration and anger soon flooded Ikky's mind. He was asking why? Why he was blessed with such a fate. He never did anything to those people, so why did he have to take the brunt of their misfortune?!
Why did their voices reach him now after all this time, once again singing a curse to aid his demise?
———
"What?"
Rick, pulled out his bottle from his mouth as he rested his body on the counter. He looked at his wife and replied again,
"Like I said, he can handle himself. So it'd just be a waste of my time sticking around."
"Bah, you're just being lazy, aren't you corazon?" Arley pinched his cheek playfully from behind the counter.
"Tch!" Rick moved his face, trying to shake off Arley's hand, but found it harder than he had expected. Feeling the fingers on his cheek clamp tighter, Rick cautiously looked back at his wife, finding a dark eerie veil of annoyance covering her face.
"You have nothing else to do today if I remember correctly. So if ANYTHING severe happens to my WORK BOY'S BODY before he even gets the chance to be the SLIGHTEST bit of helpful, I will make you starve for months!"
With the tone of her voice rising and falling intermittently, Rick made sure to pay close attention to the message being conveyed clearly.
"... Okay. I'll go get him." Rick sighed with an obedient nod.
"Yes. Thank you. It's the boy's first day looking around Mahar. He doesn't know how things are here so he needs you, his guide to show him the ropes." Arley patted his shoulder before leaning in and bringing her lips to barely touch his ear.
She whispered in a warm breath, "But hurry back now. I've recently gotten hold of some materials we can use for tonight's... dinner session."
"Ah... Uhm." Rick tried to keep a straight expression on his face, but just looked awkward instead. He went to get his coat while itching his ear. And without further words passed, he walked out of the restaurant, leaving Arley to continue tending to her customers as usual.
It was true that Mahar was a new environment to Ikky, so he needs his guide for now to look out for him and help him get familiar with the environment.
However danger always seemed to follow the amber-eyed man regardless of where he was— danger that was beyond the casual incidents and reasoning of even the world of prophets.
His misfortune came from within his own Virtue— a cost that was too much for a man just starting a life, to shoulder.
———
{Live a life without direction; not able to recognise head or tail.}
Ikky fell in the thick snow, his body sore and numb from what [Child of Nyx] had just subjected him to.
The spirit slowly retracted its arm in preparation to launch another attack at him, while Ikky could only watch this happen.
'Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap!!!' He cursed at his fate, struggling to regain control of his body.
"Move!!" He cried out, focusing all his energy into his arm. And by the time the spirit was ready for another attack, Ikky finally felt a muscle react.
However, as the spirits arm, reshaped into a massive axe of bones and rotten scanty flesh fell down upon him, it was his leg that moved instead; and at an angle that dislocated it nonetheless.
"Ahh!!" He cried out in pain as the bone axe fell into the snow, blowing it apart and making a large crevice in the ground. But Ikky was not struck directly.
Disregarding how twisted his left leg had turned due to his earlier attempt at moving his arms, Ikky felt a brief moment of relief as he got blasted into the air along with the snow.
The spirit had missed its target? No, Ikky had only used night mist to blow himself out of the way.
Due to his earlier mental disarray at discovering the ominous spirit, Ikky had given into fear so much that he'd believed the spirit had complete dominance over him. And while it really did in practically all aspect that mattered, Ikky had still managed to take control of parts of the night mist the spirit was made of.
"Ha!..." He was surprised himself. "Haha!" His eerie amber eyes not being able to blink were wide open and welling up with tears.
Ikky looked like he was in a state of utter shock, however it was really just crippling frustration... and a tiny bit of enlightenment.
He whispered before a loud cry,
"I wanted to flee, so you took away my legs... I had wanted to die, yet you wished me eternal suffering...
HA... Hahahaha!! All of you damn hellspawns! Is it just me or do your curses work wrong?!!" He taunted the souls of the dead and suffering who had cursed him first.
The spirit, realising what had just happened with the night mist, rose its other arm up to the sky. And as it shrunk the previous arm, the one it held up increased in size till it created another gigantic axe of bones and flesh. But unlike before when it swung its arm down, the creature let go of its control over the towering axe of dead spirits, retracting the night mist and letting the entire thing fall down upon the poor prophet.
But Ikky wasn't just sitting idle while this was happening.
The black starry mist was cold, despite the warm looking twinkles within it.
It promised no comfort to even those who are its masters. But Ikky was not seeking comfort. What he sought was control.
As the mist flowed into the pores of his right arm, Ikky felt the fears merge with his cursed body to invade his blood vessels and strengthen his muscles. He was forcing the mist into his body, planning to control it from the inside. The mist had neither weight nor density but could be controled. While his arms had both of those things, but lacked that same control.
It was a risky and uncertain process mixing his body and the dark air together. But then again, it was the only thing that gave Ikky the best chance at surviving.
In no time, the veins in his entire arm up to his shoulder turned black, his body emitting vapours of chilling mists. The same process was also done to his left leg up to his knee at the same time.
Within the brief seconds of Ikky's enhancement process, the heavy flesh of rain struck.